Meet the Family

We want to introduce you to the Green Family. They have been nice enough to let us record their conversations during dinner. Every evening their family discusses a wide variety of subjects from planting trees to reducing waste. For them, taking care of the environment is very important.

Mom

She is a botanist (studies plants) and works at the local nursery. Mom encourages the children to learn more about environmental conservation and energy efficiency. When she has free time, she likes to garden.

Dad

The company he works for is now involved in forest conservation activities as a part of their commitment to giving back to the community. He thinks this is great because his favorite weekend activities are hiking and fishing.

Summer

Brady’s big sister. She has influenced Brady’s interest in environment. When she grows up her dream is to become a climatologist and study the effects of climate change on the earth. She loves to read and go to the beach with her friends.

Brady

He participated in Solar Academy class and now he is more interested in what he can do to save the earth. His favorite subject in school is science and his favorite thing to do on the weekend is play with his dog, Eco.

Eco

He is the family dog and loves to go walk with Brady. His favorite activity is running around in the local wilderness park and smelling all the many different things in the nature. He cares about the children very much.

Reusable Grocery Bags

Is everyone here? I have gifts to all of you today…
Here you go! These are my hand-made cloth bags!

Wow!!

I made each one of them with love! Here is for you, Dad. Here is one for you, Summer. This little one is for Brady, and Eco also gets one.

Thank you, Mom!

Arf (thank you)!!

They are so cool! Mine has my favorite print of a beetle.

Everyone’s got a different size and prints.

Yes. I made them to fit each of you, and also
used the fabrics that match your unique style.

This is a great idea! I always wanted to have my own cloth grocery bag.
I was kind of embarrassed to borrow Mom’s bright pink bag when I go to grocery stores…

I think it’s important for all of us, including men and dogs, to have their own bags and avoid using plastics bags, so that we can protect the environment.

Yes. I will definitely use this bag when I go shopping! I promise!!

Me, too!

I will put this bag into my suitcase so that I can use it whenever I need it.

I’m glad that everyone likes it. It was fun to make them by hand!

These days more people are talking about reducing the use of plastic bags.

It’s not only the consumers, but stores and communities are very enthusiastic about it.
Even cities are making changes.

Really? Which city is that??

For example, the City of San Francisco approved groundbreaking legislation to ban all plastic bags at supermarkets and drug stores .

What? They won’t give you free plastic bags any more when you check out?

No. You have to bring your own bag. San Francisco is the first city that decided to ban the use of plastic bags.

That is so revolutionary. It is amazing that the entire city is involved in this.

Now there are many other cities all over the United States that are working on similar initiatives. Many cities are thinking about charging for the plastic bags.

What? We need to pay for plastic bags?

Yes, California is considering law to charge 25 cents per bag. Some stores such as IKEA are already charging for plastic bags.

If you have to pay for a bag, everyone will bring their own bag to the store!

That’s right! And if everyone decided not to use plastic bags it helps to dramatically reduce waste.

In U.S., people use 100 billion plastic shopping bags in just one year. That’s about 330 plastic bags per person.
If everyone collaborates and reduced use of plastic bags by 100
million, that will help reduce 10,000 tons of CO2!

Wow! So if one person reduces their
usage by just a little, it can really help the earth a lot?
That’s really surprising.

What happens to the money collected from the plastic bags charges?

It will varies by the community and stores,
but in case of Ikea, the money is used to
fund other environmental activities.

That’s awesome.

Maybe our neighborhood stores start to charge for plastic bags.

I’m very for it! It’s good for the environment, and I have a bag that Mom made for me.

Yes. We now have our own bags. Why don’t we go out for shopping?

That sounds great! Let’s go!

Let’s say “no” to plastic bags at the grocery store.

Does everyone have their own bags?

Yeah!

Now they have their bags, I think they will go run more errands for me…

I also got my own bag from Mom. I love it!
Next story is about XXX. Don’t miss it!

Let’s cheer for Tuvalu!

Oh, I feel so sad…

What’s wrong?
Something happened to Eco?

What happened?
Why are you so down??

I feel bad about people in Tuvalu!

Tuvalu? Is that one of the small island countries in the Pacific?

Yes. I saw it on TV. The documentary was about how Tuvalu is sinking under the ocean because of the effect of climate change. If the climate change continues as it has, Tuvalu would be the first county that will sink under water.

Oh, no! I can’t believe that a country can actually sink… is that because the ocean is rising?

Yes and it’s very serious now.
The country’s is a little island. Its coastline is already starting to erode very fast. During the high tide, sea water seeps through the ground, so homes and streets flood easily. Their fresh groundwater is also contaminated with the seawater, so they can’t use it for drinking and growing crops.
Life of the people in Tuvalu is devastated now and no one will be able to live on the island in the near future. It’s so sad…

I feel you. It’s really tough to see that.

Dad, can you tell us more about Tuvalu?

Tuvalu is located in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean, near Australia. Tuvalu consists of 9 islands made of coral reefs, and the ground is only about 4 to 6 feet above the sea level. At it's highest point it is only 15 ft. above sea level. It’s a small country with a land of 10 square miles. About 1,700 households, 9,600 people, live there.
Facing this severe problem, the government of Tuvalu has decided to move the entire population on the island and abandon their country.

It’s so sad that their country disappears from the map.

There is anything we can do to stop it?

We can help by contributing to the prevention of climate change.

We have to tackle this problem as a citizen of the Earth!

That’ right. Let me tell you one good thing that happened in Tuvalu.
It’s a happy story that might light up your feelings.

What is it??

Tuvalu has a large solar system now!

Wow! That’ awesome!

Government of Tuvalu has announced that they also want to contribute to the prevention of climate change. Japanese utility company, Kansai Denryoku, has responded to the request and they provided the solar system for the soccer stadium in Tuvalu’s capital, Funafuti.

Solar system in the soccer stadium? That’s really cool.

Tuvalu’s main electric source has been diesel generator in the past, and this is their first renewable energy generation system.

How big is the system?

Generation capacity is 40 kilowatts.
The system can power up to 50 households. Not only that, the electric generation from solar can reduce the CO2 emission by 50 tons annually.

I’m sure that the Earth is also happy!

People in Tuvalu are not giving up. They are fighting with the climate change, too.

That’s great news! I feel a little better now.

And I pledge fight climate change with them!

Let’s do some research and find out more ways we can reduce climate change and help the people of Tuvalu.

LED: The Next Generation Bulb

You know about LEDs? That’s fantastic!
LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. Its like a high tech light bulb.

I think I’ve heard that word before.

LEDs have the characteristic which allows them to light up when electric current flows through them. That means LEDs can transform electricity into light. Like a light bulb.
Do you want to know how?

Yes!

OK, then.
LEDs are made of “semi-conductor” materials. And semi-conductor materials can partially conduct electricity.

Cool! Solar modules are made of a semi-conductor material too. It’s called Silicon. Right?

Yes! LEDs have two types of semi-conductor material, a “P-type” and “N-type.” When you run the electricity through a LED, the current flows from the P-side to the N-side. This is the only direction the electricity can flow.
As the electrons move, they release energy in the form of photons … which is light!

So LEDs work in the opposite way from Solar. With Solar, photons (light) from the sun are turned into electricity. However with LEDs, electricity is turned into photons (light). OK, I get it now.
My friend said LEDs are also good for the environment, right?

Yes. Very good.
First of all, LEDs have a very long life. Normal incandescent light has a life about 1000 to 2000 hours, but a LED can last for about 40,000 hours.

Wow!!! That’s like forever...

That means you don’t have to replace the light bulbs as often as you did before.
Also, the electric energy consumed by LED to get the same brightness is about 1/5 to 1/10 of the regular incandescent lights.
And if you use less energy…

You can reduce CO2 emission!

That’s right. In addition, LEDs are very light and small, so it doesn’t take much material to produce them. Because LEDs do not use lead that is often used for regular fluorescent lights, you can also avoid polluting the environment.
LED technology is now expected to be the next generation light that helps conserve environment.

LEDs are great. I want to have them in my house…

I think you’ve already got them.

What? Where??

This technology is already used in many places.
For example, they are used for streetlights, just like you noticed, and traffic lights.

Traffic lights?

Yes. LED lights are very bright but don’t give off lots of heat. Plus, there good for the environment. In the United States, there are more than 4.5 million traffic signals with LEDs!
Other examples of places we use LEDs are cars. Many car manufacturers are using LED for backlights and break lamps.
You can find LEDs everywhere from video game consoles to cell phones to holiday decorations.
Can you guess where else you have LEDs?

Well… The lights for our Christmas tree! And lights in our clock… and our computer!

Good job! You see that there are many LEDs around us. And in the future there will be even more.